The microchip of microfluidic diagnostics mChip, developed by Samual Sia and Columbia University's collaborators, reliably diagnoses HIV and syphilis in about 15 minutes at a cost of just $1. It simplifies the complex assay process on the chip and helps achieve medical diagnostics in resource-poor environments. Currently, Harvard physicists and colleagues have implemented microfluidic chip-based sequencing technology, reducing the cost of personal genetic sequencing to $30.
In an interview with the media, Xie Guoji said: "The invention of mChip is to enable large-scale diagnostic tests in any corner of the world, instead of forcing patients to go to the hospital clinic to draw blood, and then wait a few days to get results."
Cheap AIDS treatment
About 64 million people in the world are currently infected with HIV and are growing at a rate of 7,000 a day, including 1,800 newborns. Seventy percent of the world's HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV affects not only the health of individuals, but also the economic development of families, communities and countries.
Although early diagnosis and treatment, as well as the promotion of pre-exposure drugs, can reduce the incidence of AIDS complications, in poor developing countries, such technologies and equipment are scarce. Microfluidic (chip lab) technology is expected to solve this problem. One of the project participants, Chinese scientist Xie Guoji, was awarded the title of World Youth Technology Innovator in the 100-year "Technical Review" of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, in recognition of his contribution to the development of inexpensive microfluidic chips.
HIV antibodies generally appear gradually after 4 weeks of infection, and can be extended to life, which is an important indicator for humans. Detection of HIV-specific antibodies is an important basis for the diagnosis of AIDS. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the earliest and fastest-growing internationally used method and the most commonly used method for detecting HIV antibodies. The basic principle is that the immunoreactant can combine with the corresponding antigen or antibody in the sample to be tested into an immune complex, and then add a colorless enzyme, which will produce color after being catalyzed or hydrolyzed.
To test AIDS in this way, blood samples must be sent to a qualified laboratory for testing. In Africa, health clinic resources are scarce and complex testing tests cannot be completed. It takes days or even dozens of days to get to a city hospital.
The system developed by Xie Guoji and others can carry complex tests on the chip. This credit card-sized chip contains tiny continuous U-shaped test tubes and chemicals that require only a small sample (approximately 1 microliter) to complete the reaction and read the test within 15 minutes. The detected reagents are placed in a hose, separated by air bubbles, and brought into the chip using a simple pull of the syringe. These chips can be mass-produced through an injection molding process that does not require moving parts, current or external measuring instruments. It analyzes the blood optically and shows whether the HIV test result is positive or negative within 15 minutes. Similar to the pregnancy test, even if it is not a doctor, ordinary people can distinguish whether they are infected with HIV through color. If you want the test results to be more accurate, you can put the chip in the test box to see the results.
Xie Guoji’s team worked with the Colombian School of Public Health, Rwandan health administrators and non-government health organizations to conduct a four-year study in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, to test the equipment. For the combined detection of HIV and syphilis, the discrimination rate is 100%, and the false positive rate is between 4% and 6% - equivalent to the standard laboratory level.
They have studied hundreds of patients, and the current detection rate of this technology among AIDS patients is 100%.
Prospects of microfluidics
Microfluidic technology is one of the rapidly developing high-tech and multidisciplinary cross-tech frontiers. It can miniaturize the laboratory and construct microfluidic analysis units and systems on the surface of solid chips through planar micromachining technology to achieve Accurate, fast, and informative detection of proteins, nucleic acids, and other biological groups. In the biomedical field, it can reduce the consumption of precious biological samples and reagents to microliters and even nanoscale upgrades, and double the analysis speed and cost.
Microfluidic technology not only emphasizes reducing the size of the device, it focuses on building microfluidic channel systems to perform a variety of complex microfluidic manipulation functions, allowing the liquid to perform many steps in an experiment in the flow.
In order to promote the application of microfluidics in rapid medical diagnosis, in 2004, Xie Guoji and two colleagues co-founded Claros Diagnostics. In 2007, they received a $780 investment from venture capital firms such as Oxford Bio, which has developed instruments for detecting prostate cancer, which has been licensed in Europe in June this year. They then improved the chip to detect HIV, syphilis and hepatitis, and they are developing methods for detecting hepatitis B, C, and malaria in resource-poor third-world countries.
The use of this mChip chip for medical diagnosis is not only a disease can be detected at a time. For example, in the diagnosis of AIDS, additional tests such as syphilis and hepatitis can be added without significantly increasing the application cost.
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